The Best Shift Yet
by ray-ray021594
Summary: GRILLOWS FIC! My first fic in what feels like 10000000 years! Please R&R! I own a big fat nothing except too much free time and a love of Grillows!


**My first fic in FOREVER!!!! **

**Characters don't belong to me, but you all knew that :)**

**Enjoy!**

Gil had been acting odd the past few weeks. Now, Catherine, being his best friend and being the kind of woman that she is, could usually get Gil to spill in roughly three days. But this time it was different. Every time they were together and she'd bring up the subject, Gil would either change the subject entirely, tell her that he's late for something and run away or just completely ignore her.

--

"She asked me what's wrong again!" Gil fumed as he entered his office, banging his door on his way in and shouted at no one in particular.

He was getting irritated with himself, which was making him irritated with everyone else — even Catherine.

And it's not like he didn't know what to say to her, he had it all prepared, memorised and written down for the last five months. He just wasn't sure how and when to tell her. And what would be his excuse for wanting to talk to her?

What was he thinking? This was Catherine! He didn't need an excuse. They were best friends, had been for over twenty years.

But, there was the problem right there.

They were best friends.

He'd been there for her through everything: when her and Eddie would get in fights and Catherine would come knocking on his door late and night covered in cuts and bruises, threw her pregnancy and birth of Lindsay, whenever she'd needed him, Gil would always be there for him.

But it wasn't all give and no receive; Catherine had been there for him when was feeling overwhelmed at work, when he was sick and he needed someone to take Hank for walks, and after Sara left, she was there for him, never brought up the situation, but she was there for him.

'And now I've gone and screwed up something good by falling in love with her,' Grissom thought to himself.

As if on queue, Catherine wrapped on the glass door and interrupted his thoughts.

She poked her head through the door and smiled at him a smile that could power the whole of Vegas.

"Hey Gil, are we getting assigned cases today or what?"

Gil rattled his brain and tried to get his head around what she was talking about, but he couldn't, he was just couldn't stop staring at her. Her eyes, they were smiling at him, just as much as, if not more, as her smile was.

He probably looked like a complete loony, but he didn't care. It was like time had stopped.

But he was quickly brought back down to reality when Catherine came right put under his nose, looked up at him with her hands on her hips and said in only a way Catherine could, "What's wrong with you?"

Gil got brought back down to earth too quickly and thought he was going to collapse. "Um, nothing, nothing." He rubbed his eyes. "Sorry, um…"

She looked at him, obviously not convinced, "Well, alright. We got a lot of cases this shift?"

"Um, no, not really," Grissom said, looking at the few slips in his hand.

"Good, then I think you should go home and get some rest," as she said that she grabbed the case slips out of Grissom's hand and turned on her heels toward the break room where their fellow CSIs awaited.

--

Catherine was standing in the break room handing out case slips when Grissom entered.

"…alright and Nick and Riley you can have the 419 in the retirement community."

"Catherine wait, I…"

"…and Greg you and me can –" she was cut off by Grissom taking the slips out of her hands.

"Cath just, rewind and freeze! Ok? I have a system."

Catherine scoffs, "Yeah…right."

"Alright, sorry I'm late everyone. Alright, um, Nick and Riley you can take the 419, that's fine, but um, Greg I want you take the 419 at Ghostbar solo."

"What?!" screamed Catherine.

"YES!" Greg cheered and grinned from ear-to-ear and if it was for Catherine's death stare he probably would've got up and hugged Grissom.

"Riley, Greg, Nick, could you three just kinda…" Grissom frantically waved towards the door.

"Oh yeah, yeah." Nick quickly gets up noticing the tension that he doesn't want to be apart of. He grabs Greg and pulls him out of the room with Riley following close behind.

"Gil, what the hell?! You can't just give out the best case of the night to… GREG!"

"Cath, just listen to me."

"What?"

"I want to…talk to you about something and it's kinda personal, so…can I take you out for something to eat, so we can…talk about…what's bugging me?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow and Gil's body tensed up. Then she smiled one of those smiles that could melt butter, "Sure."

Gil let out a breath that he'd only noticed now that he had been holding.

--

"So…what do you need to tell me," Catherine asked as she took a bite into her turkey club, no bacon sandwich.

"Um…ok. Right here it goes. Catherine, you know I care about you right?" He gave Catherine a chance to nod before continuing, "And I know that these past few years have been different, you know? With Lindsay becoming a teenager and having to take care of her on your own, and my whole thing with Sara, and…"

He got cut off by Catherine, "That you should have told me about."

"That I should have told you about, you're so right. And I feel awful about the whole thing. But that's a completely different subject for a different day. Anyway, but you know that I love you," by now Gil was starting to get very sweaty and even more nervous than he was before, "and we're as close as a man and a woman could get without…all that other stuff. I guess my point is," Gil took a moment to look at the napkin on the table and it was like he was asking it for help, with Catherine just grinning at him "My point is that…Jesus, Cath. I'm in love with you; I have been for a long time now. And I probably always will." He released a breath of air and his face looked so relieved, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

Catherine looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. "You've-you've loved me for how-how long exactly?" Catherine stammered.

"Um, oh I don't know, a couple of years, maybe."

Catherine looked at him and smiled through her tears, "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I dunno, other stuff got in the way, you know, and…I was scared…"

"Of what, Gil?"

"Rejection."

"You are the cleverest dumb man I've ever met in my entire life," Catherine blinked back her tears, "You must have seen I've been madly in love with you for years."

Gil's heart swelled with pride. He, the geeky Gil Grissom: bugman. Was the man the beautiful Catherine Willows - who could have any guy she wanted – had been madly in love with for years. If he died now he would most certainly die with a huge goofy smile on his face.

But not before he did this.

He pulled Catherine closer and over the table in the diner they kissed for the first time. A deep, loving, heart-stopping kind of kiss. The kind of kiss that you see in movies and wish that one day to be a part of. As their kiss deepened Gil knew they would not be finishing their food anytime soon so he broke the kiss and looked deep into Catherine's eyes.

"I love you Catherine."

"I love you too Gil," her words got caught in her throat and they were out the door.

Gil threw some money for their food on the table. He probably gave about a twenty dollar tip, but right now, the only thing that was on his mind was.

GET HOME. CATHERINE. BED. TOGETHER.

**Well...that's that! Thanks for reading!**

**I hope you enjoyed it! Please review so I know weather or not to carry on with this story or leave it at that! Please give your opinion!**


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